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As far as I understand, the word 大人 (otona) uses the kanji 大 to represent お
and the kanji 人 to represent と. According to [this
site](http://tangorin.com/kanji/%E4%BA%BA) the readings for 人 do not include
な. Where does the な come from then?


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kanji etymology
Where does the な in 大人 (otona) come from?


It's [熟字訓]{じゅくじくん}. Excerpt from
[Wiktionary](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jukujikun):

> A Japanese word whose kanji spelling conveys the meaning based on the
> individual characters, but the reading is not directly related to the
> spellling. For example, 大 (“big”, usually read _ō_ in _kun'yomi_ compounds)
> and 人 (“person”, usually read _hito_ in _kun'yomi_ compounds) combine to
> form 大人, meaning “adult” but read as _otona_ instead of the otherwise-
> expected _ōbito_.

We have tons of 熟字訓, e.g. [昨日]{きのう}, [土産]{みやげ}, [二十歳]{はたち} etc. For more, see
[熟字訓 on Wikipedia](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%86%9F%E5%AD%97%E8%A8%93).


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# Regarding the etymology of おとな

大人 contains the meaning of **the leader of a group, the most significant one,
the eldest one,** etc.

The etymology is not clear however one of the reason might related to the word
乙名＝おとな

During 室町 period, the wise leaders who lead some local farmer's autonomous
group were commonly called 乙名＝おとな。 It is unclear which word came first but the
reading [大人]{おとな} _**quite possibly**_ came from 乙名。

Reference: See section [大辞林
第三版](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B9%99%E5%90%8D-40740#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88
"Kotobank Online Dictionary").

So here you go! The な comes from [名]{な} in 乙名。

_Or is it? GO FIND OUT YOURSELF〜 ヽ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)メ Study etymology〜_ You can probably
get a PhD studying this.

Portal -> [日本歴史言語学会](http://www.jp-histling.com/Pages/default.aspx)

* * *

# Regarding 熟字訓

It is false to think 大人＝ [大]{お}・人{と}＋な。

[@user5185 is right](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/24513/where-
does-the-%E3%81%AA-in-%E5%A4%A7%E4%BA%BA-otona-come-from/24515#24515) about 大人
being 熟字訓 and got not much relation with the pronunciation おとな。 _（It might
once be related, but not anymore cause no one is sure.）_

For more information on 熟字訓 and 当て字 see my another answer for [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/50383/exceptions-to-
kanji-readings "Q: Exceptions to kanji readings").


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おとな is a Japanese word meaning big person...adult. When kanji came to Japan
they took the characters 大 人 to represent their native word.

乙名 is a buddhist term..ie a Chinese loan word assigned a close apporximate to
its original pronunciation.

The alleged similarities between the two are superficial.

You will find that in Japanese anyone can take kanji and assign a meaning and
reading to them that goes outside the norm.

For instance 鸚鵡 is written using kana alone. おうむのスコックス

Squawks the parrot from dkc2. Or i can just write 鸚鵡 and put スコックス above it.

さいのランビ Rambi the rhino 犀のランビ becomes just 犀

Squitter the spider

I can write 蜘蛛靴 Spider + shoes I can then do this

蜘ん靴 spider +shoes

I can then do this 蜘*靴 , or just 蜘靴。 i can then put the furigana スクイータ

Etc So anyone who plays donkey kong country 2 when they see that would know it
is thay character. theres not really a confusion because when talking about a
normal spider rhino or parrot only kana is used.

Similarily, multi kanji compounds can be abbreviated in the hopes that the
meanimg can still be conveyed. For instance

ゆゆはくしょ 幽霊遊猟白書

Originally 6 character compound meaning ghost hunting report Abbreviated to

幽☆遊☆白書

Any native speaker who sees this would understand what it is saying.

When speaking kanji will ne eliminated or parts of readimgs will be eliminated
and replaced with ん

Both these concepts are important to understand especially for understanding
anime ,manga and video games as they are used a lot.

This is very common in japanese media. Its pointless trying to find a reason
for this. The reason is that the person or people took a word and assigned
characters to it that associated with its inherant meaning. We do the same in
english. Its not really a foreign concept. In english we assign a singular
noun a group noun. You see this wtih fruit. We call oranges and
tangerines..oranges. bananas and plaintains...bananas.

We say we are driving the car..while in our truck.

Transportation refers to bus bike train or plane.

Our immediate peers will understand what we are talking about and not question
that we are in a truck instead of a car.

We also make up slang code words to refer to things all the time.

In other words we take one word and associate with another similar meaning
word for ease of communication and comfort.

Both cars and trucks are vehicles. We shouldnt habe to specifically state what
type of locmotive we are driving. So we just use the generic noun car.

Not the same concept i know, but similar enough so as not to be alienated from
a foreign language.


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